nity, while our friends were at a distance, to rush in and scalp
them, and be off again before pursuit could be made. I have on many
occasions found the importance of not despising an enemy. I urged
Pipestick to keep a look out while I was attending to the hurts of the
old chief, and helping some of the poor women who were the most severely
injured.

I had been thus employed for some time, occasionally looking out to see
how it fared with Obed and his party in their pursuit of the enemy.
Wherever they went, the Dacotahs scattered before them, but rallied
again directly afterwards in the distance, and seemed as ready as ever
to renew the attack. When I looked up the next time, they were once
more flying as chaff before the wind. I at once saw that their purpose
was to weary out their pursuers, and then to unite and to make a
desperate attack on them altogether. I hoped that my friends would be
too wary to be led into the snare laid for them.

I had been for some time stooping down to try and bind up the lacerated
wounds of a poor fellow who had been cruelly cut about by the Indian's
tomahawks, when a shout from Pipestick made me lift my head, and I saw a
dozen or more Dacotahs come scampering like demons out of the wood with
the evident intention of making an attack on us. I sprang to my feet,
and helped Pipestick to get up. We both of us had our rifles loaded, as
had several of the Indians, from the ammunition furnished me by Obed.
The cunning rogues did not know this, and thought that they were going
to catch us unprepared. We presented our rifles. They laughed
derisively, as much as to say, "Oh, they will do us no harm, we know
that." Never were they more mistaken in their lives, and it was the
last mistake they ever made. We let them come on without shrinking.

"John," said I, "let me take the fellow on my right-hand side; do you
take the next, and tell our Indian friends to follow my lead. We'll
astonish those red-skins, I guess."

Pipestick did as I advised. We let the Indians approach within a
hundred yards of us. On they came, making a desperate rush at us, and
uttering their fearful war-whoops confident of victory.

"Now, my boys, give it them," I shouted; "and take care that every shot
tells."

Pipestick repeated my words. We all fired at the same moment, and six
of the Indians were knocked over. So eager were the rest that they did
not discover that their companions had fallen. They were